TRIED THE NEW DOGGY STEPS WITH THE JEEP THIS MORNING

Surprisingly, we were above freezing by 7 a.m. this morning.  Will miracles ever cease?  We later topped out at 39F under semi-sunny afternoon skies.  There was melting going on and did that warming sun ever feel nice on my face.  A genuine early taste of Spring before we head back into the deep freeze in a couple days.

This morning was the first test with our new doggy-step to see if Pheebs would use it to get into the Jeep.  And by golly, she came right up into the Jeep with the help of a few well-placed weiner chunks.  I think training her in the house to use the steps was a help.  We'll see if it becomes a routine habit for her to get into the Jeep now.  I hope so because it sure was nice having her back in her seat again riding along beside me. We cruised around one of our well-worn country road routes southeast of Bayfield.  Home again and with the help of a weiner treat placed on the bottom step, she exited the Jeep down the steps with no problem.

 HEADING OUT THE DRIVEWAY WITH THE LITTLE BUGSY BEANS IN THE JEEP

 ANIMAL TRACKS ALONG THE CREEKS EDGE

The Anjema Eye Institute had booked two appointments for me in March but called this morning saying they had an opening this afternoon if I could come in and the second appointment Friday afternoon.  The answer was yes of course.  The Anjema clinic in Chatham Ontario is the one that did the mild eyelid surgery on my right eye last summer.  Luckily for me, they have a facility right here in Bayfield now too.  My appointment was at two and they had me do two different eye tests on two different machines.  Friday, Dr. Anjema will do more tests and then maybe they will tell me what's going on and why all these tests.  

 AT THE EYE CLINIC

 WE WENT DOWN THE BIG BARKY DOG'S ROAD AND HERE COMES BIG BARKY NOW

 BIG BARKY SURE HAD A LOT OF BIG BARKS GOING ON

 PHEEBS TOOK IT ALL IN STRIDE AND CALLED BIG BARKY A BIG SILLY

Finished my latest book, 'The Ultimate Book On UFO's And Extraterrestrials: What Is Fake And What Is True'.  After reading this book, I decided I definitely needed to give my head a break and change directions for a while so my next read was a short biography on Andrew Carnegie (libraries)which I finished in a couple hours and found interesting.  By the way, Andrew Carnegie and Dale Carnegie are two separate people and they are not related.  Today I began another short biography about a fellow named Samuel Langhorne Clemens.  Of course, we all know him by his pen name...Mark Twain.  But, before he called himself Mark Twain he also went by a couple other pen names......W. Epaminondas Adrastus being one and Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass being another.  Sam got his Mark Twain name while learning to pilot a steamboat on the Mississippi River.  The riverboat was named the Paul Jones and one of the routine jobs on the boat was continually taking the depth of the water.  This was done by someone called a 'leadsman'.  The leadsman, dropping a line in the water would call out the depth by saying "quarter twain" "half twain" and finally "mark twain" which indicated a safe depth of water under the boat.  So, 'Walla'.....Mark Twain.  And now you know:))   

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 I SURE HOPE PHEEBS WILL CONTINUE USING THE NEW STEPS

GROANER'S CORNER:((   Hubby - You always carry my photo in your handbag to the office. Why?

Wife - When there is a problem, no matter how impossible, I look at your picture and the problem disappears.

Hubby - You see, how miraculous and powerful I am for you?

Wife - Yes, I see your picture and say to myself, "What other problem can there be greater than this one?"
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At work I've got the ear of my boss...I'm still not convinced we should pay the ransom.

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IT IS A THIN LINE I WALK EACH DAY WITH 'GROANER'S CORNER'

 NICE SKIES OUT OVER LAKE HURON THIS MORNING

If we can't laugh at ourselves and find the humorous side of our beings I think it is maybe a sad statement about our well-being.  With the way things are in the world at the moment, it is more important than ever to try and find a glimmer of humor somewhere.  It is an increasingly fine line I walk with Groaner's Corner each day treading lightly so as not to step on all the raw nerve endings lying about these days, mine included.  When I first started Groaner's Corner back in the summer of 2009 I set a few guidelines for myself.  I would not post any jokes with swearing or off-color sexual content.  No, I'm not a prude but I didn't feel my blog was the place for jokes like that.  In this highly charged political era, I have also learned to stay away from political jokes as well simply because of the angered negativity it brings out in so many people.  I once questioned religious jokes and had a reader email to say, "keep them coming because I print them and put them on our church's bulletin board where most everybody gets a laugh out of them".  I thought to myself, now there's a congregation of people with the right attitude who are able to have a light-hearted chuckle at life.  How sad if we can't somehow see the humorous side of our stumbles, foibles, misadventures, mistakes, and conditions.  Having blogged about depression over the years I well know the need for humor in our lives.  So what's the solution?  Scrap Groaner's Corner because a particular joke might offend someone somewhere or keep it going knowing most people will see and understand the humor for what it is.  A fleeting moment of relief to ease one's troubled mind.  A ray of humor is always welcome in these dark days whether it comes in the form of a joke, a quip from a quick-witted friend, an old Happy Days TV show, a puppy dog doing somersaults, or a current stand-up comedian who can actually do his or her entire skit without all the usual swearing and accompanying cheesy sex jokes.  I wonder how many remember how Red Skelton made us laugh years ago.  Hey, remember Flip Wilson, Tim Conway and Don Knotts.  So, I will continue to walk my thin line with Groaner's Corner each day with no intentional ill intent for anyone.  If you can't find the honest humor in the jokes and cartoons I post and you can't have an occasional laugh at yourself or at me, I suggest you probably should spend some time reading about Quantum Physics or learning about the Riemann hypothesis, P versus NP problem, or Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.  How about the Hodge conjecture, Navier-Stokes equation versus the Yang-Mills theory, and Poincaré conjecture.  Not too much humor in that stuff I should think.  Good luck, keep smiling, and try to find yourself a little extra laughter along the way in these difficult times.............. 

 THAT BIG LUMP OF ICE IS HARDLY RECOGNIZABLE AS BAYFIELD'S SOUTH PIER

GROANER'S CORNER:((  One night, a lady stumbled into the police station with a black eye. She claimed she heard a noise in her backyard and went to investigate. The next thing she knew, she was hit in the eye and knocked out cold.  An officer was sent to her house to investigate, and he returned 1-1/2 hours later with a black eye.  "Did you get hit by the same person?" his captain asked.  "No," he replied. "I stepped on the same rake."  

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THANKS EVERYBODY FOR YOUR KIND COMMENTS

 OOOOPS,  FORGOT TO PUT THE PASSENGER WINDOW DOWN ON THIS DRIVE-BY SHOT

A grey day but at least not as blistering cold as it has been.  I think we got up to 29F today.  Almost tropical.  Just me in the Jeep this morning heading to Goderich to pick up a few things.  I was out of spinach for my morning shakes.  I debated buying any more spinach because my Popeye arms are becoming so muscle-bound that I can't get my long sleeve winter shirts on anymore.  Well, at least I can twist off the hard to get unstuck lids on pickle jars now:)) 

 THE ALGOMA INTREPID TAKING ON A LOAD OF ROCK SALT

 I CAN SEE A COUPLE DUCKS OUT THERE IN THE HARBOR

After mentioning about not asking me about spaghetti yesterday, guess what we had for supper tonight.  Yep, spaghetti!!  Not to worry though, I had my fushcia colored bedsheet bib strapped on:))

 A LONE GULL WINGS IT'S WAY AROUND THE ALGOMA INTREPID'S STERN

Most of my late morning and afternoon time was again taken up with reading.  In two days I finished, Living In Two Worlds: A True Account Of Alien Encounters by Lisa Savoy.  Hey, she's Canadian so what she says has to be true, eh:))  This was an easy read with nothing technical or complicatedly confusing.  She tells her story from the heart.  What happens to her is not necessarily the norm with all the Alien encounter books I have read.  She had a hard time with many of her encounters but not all of them......  The book I am currently reading is a real 'mind blower' with many eye-opening revelations in it.  Because I have read so many books regarding UFOs', Extraterrestrials, Intraterrestrials, Government cover-ups, Technologies, Theories, etc. etc. and a hundred more etc.s I am able to keep my feet on the ground and understand much of what author Maximillion de Lafayette is writing about in, The Ultimate Book On UFOs And Extraterrestrial: What Is Fake And What Is True.  There is a lot of sense to be made out of this book despite how bizarre some of his revelations are.  In my opinion, he hits the nail on the head with a lot of what he says although much of it goes against what many Ufologists believe.  He tips the whole UFO/Alien scale back onto an even keel and he levels the playing field so to speak.  Here are a few clues to the book....German technology and UFO's go hand in hand.  Yes, Roswell really happened.  It was President Harry S Truman who first kicked the UFO door open then slammed it shut.  Extra and Intraterrestrials are real and yes, they are involved with the U.S. Government.  Well, that is of course if you know anything about or believe these things possible.  If you haven't done the research or the reading, good luck with your opinion.  Remember, keep an open mind because it is absolutely fascinating what is going on all around us and it is too easy to just look the other way and pretend it isn't......................

Thanks everybody for your kind comments on my blog photos.  Thanks to all you Facebookers too for your comments and likes.  And a special thanks to Kelly for mentioning me on Facebook:))

 NOT EVERYBODY'S IDEA OF A MORNING STROLL ON THE BEACH

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Two men were walking home after a party and decided to take a shortcut through the cemetery just for laughs. Right in the middle of the cemetery, they were startled by a tap-tap-tapping noise coming from the misty shadows. Trembling with fear, they found an old man with a hammer and chisel, chipping away at one of the headstones.  "Holy cow, Mister," one of them said after catching his breath,  "You scared us half to death -- we thought you were a ghost!  What are you doing working here so late at night?"  "Those fools!" the old man grumbled. "They misspelled my name!"

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My wife told me I was incapable of multitasking.  So I got drunk and embarrassed her at the same time.

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POST #5000...WHY I CAN'T EAT FRIED EGGS WITHOUT TOAST

 BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE

It actually looked colder out than it was but to me, cold is cold no matter how cold it does or doesn't look.  Had we not been low on milk I probably would not have gone out.  However, it was off to Bayfield's Foodland I did go.  A few pics along the way and I was soon home again.  Scratch another exciting winter's day.

Finished my Convoluted Universe Book 2 today.  Before starting Book 3 I am going to have to take a break and read something lighter and hopefully humorously entertaining.  These Delores Cannon books keep setting my head on fire.  Maybe I'll read something about the shenanigans of Abbot and Costello, The Three Stooges, Laurel and Hardy, or The Little Rascals.  Maybe Dick and Jane have some new adventures out.  Ya, that should untwist my pretzeled mind.

 'I THINK WE'RE BEING WATCHED BERTHA'

 'I THINK YOUR RIGHT HERB'

 'WE'LL JUST IGNORE HIM AND HE'LL GO AWAY

It's that time of year now when I begin paying closer attention to the longer-ranged 14-day weather forecast looking hopefully for the first signs of a temperature shift, a trend, a slight warming of days.  However, looking ahead as far as February 20th I see no signs of warming air yet.  Nothing, zero, zilch.  Drats!!!!

OUR SNOWY FRONT YARD WHERE THE BIRDS HANG OUT

Are you a dipper?  I am.  Anyone who has ever sat down with me for a big plate of bacon and eggs may have gasped when they noticed I am a dipper.  I simply could not and would not attempt to eat my over easy or sunny-side up eggs without dunking my absorbent toast in the yellow yolk.  It does get a bit messy for me of course when transiting that drippy yolk goo from plate to mouth.  Inevitably, I end up with not only yolk on my face, in my beard, and on my mustache but my clean shirt as well.  This back and forth eating procedure can of course become rather disgustingly colorful to an onlooker but I can't imagine trying to sop up that oozy yellow stuff with a fork.  Not even a straw, so I have to soak it up with something else.  'Walla'.....toast.  And don't even bother to ask me how I eat my spaghetti either!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A man went to a psychiatrist for his phobia.  "Doc," he said, "I've got trouble. Every time I get into bed, I think there's somebody under it. I get under the bed, I think there's somebody on top of it. Top, under, top, under. You gotta help me, I'm going crazy!"  "Just put yourself in my hands for two years," said the shrink, "Come to me three times a week, and I'll cure your fears."  "How much do you charge?"  "A hundred dollars per visit."  "I'll sleep on it," said the man.  Six months later the doctor met the man on the street.  "Why didn't you ever come to see me again?" asked the psychiatrist.  "For a hundred buck's a visit? A bartender cured me for ten dollars."  "Is that so! How?"  "He told me to cut the legs off the bed!"

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If you enjoy yelling "What?" from the other room then marriage might be for you.

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